Free Dark Awakening by Kendra Leigh Castle Page A

strength. She lay there, dazed, drained, eyes closed, listening to bits of glass dropping to the floor. All around her was silence. She knew, in a dim sort of way, that she should get up, run. Her attacker could be anywhere.
    But all she could do was stay where she was. This sensation was one she also knew, though Lily thought she’d locked it away tight. She had experienced it only once, and as a much younger child. It had changed everything.
    Ruined everything.

chapter
FIVE
     
    S HE KNELT WEEPING in the middle of her ruined nursery, shattered toys littering the floor. A young, attractive woman watched from the doorway, eyes wide with horror, one hand resting protectively on her still-flat belly. A child of their own. An unexpected thrill. They wouldn’t need her anymore, Lily knew. Not with a baby of their own flesh and blood. They would send her away, the little changeling whose oddities were becoming too numerous to ignore. An embarrassment. What would the press say if they ever found out? They would send her away, and she’d been so…
angry
….
    “Lily. You’ve got to get up, Lily. We don’t have much time. He’ll be back to finish the job. His sort doesn’t quit until they’re finished. Lily?” A pause. “You’re not going to blow me all to hell if I touch you, right?”
    There was a tentative, shuddering breath, then a gentle nudge at her shoulder to go along with that rough-edged brogue she couldn’t ignore. She waited a moment to see ifhe’d go away, if this would all just pass. Because she knew that when she opened her eyes, her well-ordered little life, the one she’d always dreamed of, would be over.
    The darkness would begin to seep back in.
    And yet, what choice did she have? As much as she’d ever had, Lily thought bitterly as she slowly opened her eyes. Tynan crouched over her, closer than he’d been since the night they’d met, silvery eyes full of concern and… something else. Something wild, feral. Something completely inhuman. His mouth was set in a thin, hard line. No fangs were visible. But Lily was certain they were there just the same.
    “Vampire.” She whispered the word hoarsely, as much a statement as an accusation.
    He nodded, his eyes never leaving hers. “Yes. Me and the other. I did warn you.” He frowned, and the ferocity of it might have frightened her if she’d had any emotion left to give.
    “Why?” she asked dully. “Why couldn’t you have just left me alone?”
    The unshakable conviction she saw on his face made her want to scream. He would not be leaving her here, and with that realization came helpless despair. She would have destroyed her house a hundred times over if it meant he’d leave her in peace.
    “My queen needs your help.”
    “I don’t have any help to give anybody.”
    He glanced around, at what Lily was sure was the complete mess she’d made out of her pretty little house. His voice was dead calm when he replied.
    “You have something, woman. That much is certain.” Then his eyes dropped to her tattoo—the snake, the star.She waited, even hoped, for the same horrified look she’d seen on the other vampire’s face, waited for it to drive him off. Instead, he focused on it with intense interest.
    “What do you know about this mark?” he asked. “Where did you get it?”
    She glared up at him, hating the disadvantage her prone position put her in. “It’s just some stupid tattoo my parents put on me before they died, when I was a baby. Apparently, they were freaks. I’m not one. And if you’re going to try killing me now, too, you should probably just get it over with.”
    He continued to study the tattoo. “Green,” he murmured. “And see how it catches the light, how it shimmers. It’s beautiful.”
    “It’s just a stupid tattoo,” Lily muttered, turning her head away as embarrassment bloomed. So she had a glittery, green tattoo. She assumed the artist had been some sort of psychedelic genius. And she wished he’d plied